chronic pelvic pain

I had a hysterectomy in Feb.2007 but kept the ovaries (gyno). (specialist that gyno sent me to)I had the right ovary removed in March2008 and then the left in Oct.2008. Both times I had surgery to remove the ovaries, they were bound in adhesions and had to be removed along with extensive abdominal adhesion removal. This last time the doctor said my appendix was bound down but he cut it free, but left it. Then he said there was a growth on the outside of my small bowel but it was non cancerous. Now I am having the pain all over again but he wants me to go to physical therapy. The last time I did, it was extremely painful and then he did the lysis and took the other ovary. With all of this, I also had cysto with hydrodistention both times in 2008 and was told I had IC. I don't want to go through anymore unnecessary treatment but I am very tired of feeling like I have a toothache in my abdominal area. I have gained 20 pounds to boot through this process in 2008 and have been out a wealth of money. Any ideas on which way to turn?

Hi There,
Wow, that is a tough couple of years. I am sorry you are having such a time with all this. My first thought is that you probably have adhesions from all the abdominal surgery. It is kinda like a vicious circle. Adhesions form from surgery, have surgery to remove them, then you get more adhesions....ugh. There is a very knowledgable woman on this forum, her name is Mary53, in her profile she has a technique called body rolling, that can rid a person of adhesions. It is pretty amazing. If you search her name..
Mary53, look up her posts (there are alot of them) she explains in detail how it has helped her and many other women. This is something you probably want to run by your doc prior to starting though. I understand what you mean about going through more unnecessary treatment, I don't blame you. There is also a great book I am reading called
Screaming to be heard by Dr Elizabeth Vliet. It is really an amazing book about womens hormones and all kinds of things you would never realize until you are in the situation you are in. Try to pick that up too.
I hope you get some anwers, God Bless and keep us posted
Laney

Thanks for responding to this post, Laney. I meant to get to it earlier.

I can copy the info here... and, I need to figure out how to get the information onto "Health Pages" on this forum. It is posted on the Ovarian Cancer (Patient to Patient forum) and also on the Ovarian Cyst forum under "Relief for Surgical Adhesions."

I had no idea how painful adhesions are! I am very grateful I found this technique. Check with your doctor to make sure you can/should do this type of intense abdominal massage.
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This is a bit difficult to explain, but I am thinking it would be helpful to copy this information and read it while comfortable so you can try to visualize the whole thing.

I am sure there might be others with a bit of a different technique, but I did not order anything special to do this exercise...just followed the lead of the exercise teacher who was helping me.

The exercise teacher had just taken a course from a woman named Umana and she is from Russia..she developed a program called Body logic. You could google the names to find information about Umana and her program, but, again, I did not order anything over the Internet, but I found her website interesting.

I mean, I felt like Superman lying on this ball...as if trying to fly!

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I put updated information at the bottom of this page, verifying that this really did work (for me at least!)....hoping this helps.

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The woman who taught me how to do this is an Exercise Instructor. She said that one reason she wanted to learn this technique was so that she could teach elderly people how to do it since some of our insides "glue together" as we age and that this releases much of the gluing because of all the blood, thus oxygen, it brings to the area.

In my case, I had a total hysterectomy in 2000 and suffered from surgical adhesions for over a year. The pain from the adhesions started about three months post-op. I did not find out about this technique until a year and a half after the pain from the adhesions started. This special massage seems to break up the adhesions and it worked for me. I figured that if it worked for adhesions that formed naturally in our body, it should work for surgical adhesions. It did!

It is truly amazing. I noticed a HUGE difference immediately. When I sat up after the fist time I did this (about a 15 min. session) I could feel a "FLOOD" or a Rush of blood or something! going to that area. After having (pelvic area) pain about 40 times an HOUR for over a year and a half after my surgery, my pain decreased to only about 10 times a DAY for a few seconds at a time. I did this procedure again about a week after the first session and that gave me even more relief. I think it was about four months until I had to do it again. Eventually I did not need to do this at all. My pain (and adhesions.... see notes below) eventually subsided totally.

The idea is you want to get the blood to the bone, not just the muscle....so it floods the tendons and gets lots of oxygen there to start healing and breaking up the adhesions.

**My instructor told me to think of a steak and how the tendon is sort of splotchy with blood where it is attached to the bone...well, you want to get the blood totally to the bone so as to really break things up. Regular massage is not "deep" enough.

The ball I used measures 16 inches. Again, though, I did not get the ball thru the website (Bodylogic) but you can go there and check it out if you want. The website is all about body rolling and about the woman who developed the technique.
I got just an ordinary ball in a toy section at Target and it looked similar to the one my exercise instructor used when she was teaching me how to do this. The ball I have has a picture of Blues Clues on it! Hey, it works. It probably is bigger than the ones they recommend, but, if you think about it, it is squishy to the point where once all my weight is on it, it probably shrinks down to about ten inches. And, I just put my "front" onto the ball for the pelvic area pain and NEVER on my back.

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Here is how I did it...leaning my body weight into it, literally placing the ball underneath me starting on the pubic bone and "rolling" on the ball...slowly.

I would lay on the pubic bone and just stay there for a few minutes... trying to put as much weight on the ball as possible (hard to do and you feel like Superman lying on a table trying to fly...does that make sense?) and then take about four minutes or so to SLOWLY (while remembering to take deep breaths now and then) work my way out to the right side where the ovary once was on that side. After you get there, go back slowly to the pubic bone...breathe deeply. When you get to the pubic bone again, then go to the other side, following a path, if you will, of where you imagine the fallopian tube once was. So, you are rolling in something like a "V" formation. After you get to the left side where the ovary once was, then go back to the pubic bone...and, you are done. But, take about 15 minutes to do the whole procedure. You only need to make a V formation path once... taking time to do it well.

**********************Notes after a laparoscopy....August 2007***********************

At first I did this technique twice in two weeks. Then I had to do it about once every two months or so...then about once a year. When my doctor did a laparscopy on me in June,07 (hoping to find adhesions so we could figure out why I had been having pain, which turned out to be a ruptured disk) he was shocked at how "clean" my insides were. He said he actually consulted another doctor about it. He said that you always see evidence of any type of abdominal surgery no matter how invasive (or not) the surgery. And, since I had such a huge surgery back in 2000, he expected to see some type of adhesion debris...but did not see anything. A great testimonial to Body rolling!

I always suggest checking with the doctor. I am not a doctor, just a person who was miserable from the pain of adhesions.

It does hurt a little while you are doing it, that is for sure, since you are initially pressing on the pubic bone with all the weight you can manage to put on the ball. And then you roll slowly to where the ovaries once were and yes, it is not the most pleasant feeling, but it is a "good hurt" if you know what I mean.

I have also used the type of Medicine ball that is "squishy." I bought one for the sake of weight training and for a just in case those nasty things return!

I had a vaginal hysterectomy 3 1/2 years ago in Jan 06. I have suffered with CPP since. After 2 primary doctors & 2 OBGYN doctors none mentioned adhesions. I recently began an online search and found Dr. Hufnagel who said I have a serious problem of adhesions and bowel obstruction. She told me this just from my symptoms I described. I began researching hysterectomy adhesions and found this site and your exercise help for my problem. My question to you would it help me even after 3 1/2 years? Could I cause more problems doing these, especially with my possible bowel obstruction? Thank you, Robin

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